Pre-Trip Report: Round 3 of Arctic Wednesdays

2/13/2017

It seems so fitting that I am sitting here in the comfort of my living room on a rare and beautiful snow day (like unicorn rare!) drafting my thoughts about my upcoming trip to the summit of Mt. Washington.  As a fan of winter, it is comforting to have some real snow following last “winter”.  My normal picture window view of the Presidential Mountains is totally obscured by snow that continues to gently drift down from the white sky.

I have really enjoyed reading the blog contributions by the other Arctic Wednesday participants.  It certainly seems that it has been an interesting and adventurous year trying to climb to the summit of Mt. Washington even with the help of snowcats.  I have been contemplating what my trip will hold for me.  With the significant snowfall that we just received, forecast of high winds and the continuation of snowfall through Wednesday’s trip I would expect conditions to be challenging at best.  Time will tell.

This upcoming trip seemed like a great excuse to do some trip recon with some of my middle school students.  Through some careful negotiations with my wonderful Principal, I was able to sneak down to the mountain with 16 students and my normal partner-in-crime, fellow team teacher Anthony Mullins.  We quietly departed school around 11am (didn’t want to make everyone jealous) and arrived at Great Glen Trails in time for a leisurely lunch with some great views skyward and a quick discussion of the weather displayed in the lodge. We packed into two snowcoaches 45 minutes later and started up the mountain.  I quickly learned that some of the 12 year old students I was sharing our coach with were a bit nervous and perhaps freaking out a bit as we ascended into the open spaces along the auto road. 

We reached our turn-around spot and bailed out for 10 minutes.  A solid 40mph wind and temperatures hanging around 0F greeted us.  The views did not disappoint!

I look forward to see what this Wednesday will hold!

Jamie Welch

Berlin Middle School

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PS This trip is now scheduled for a day early on Tuesday, February 14th, due to an impending clipper system moving through this Wednesday. Fingers crossed for a successful trip up the mountain tomorrow! -Brian Fitzgerald